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Originally Posted by bill_mchale
I am pretty sure Tolkien started "The Lord of the Rings" intending it for a similar target audience as the Hobbit, which helps explain the inclusion of Tom Bombadil and a few other incidents in the first part of the book.
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Bill
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The movies follow the same sort of tone, light and fanciful while they're in the Shire, but dark and ominous once they leave. One could argue that also helps show how idyllic the Hobbits' lives are and how scary it is for them to leave, but I think it also has a lot to do with the "children's book" tone that the first few chapters of the book have. Tom Bombadil fits with that tone but not with the more adult tone the book has towards the middle and end, and not only would have been out of place in the movie but doesn't really move the story along either.